Desktop Support Contract Job Trends

Desktop Support
UK

The median Desktop Support daily rate in the UK is £213, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 24 July 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 493 310 328
Rank change year-on-year -183 +18 -33
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 173 259 281
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.33% 0.79% 0.69%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.35% 0.87% 0.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 127 145 197
10th Percentile £147 £147 £129
25th Percentile £171 £160 £146
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £213 £200 £200
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% - -
75th Percentile £240 £241 £225
90th Percentile £277 £278 £270
UK excluding London median daily rate £210 £200 £200
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -0.99%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 41 31
10th Percentile £16.13 - £16.25
25th Percentile £17.25 £13.75 £18.07
Median hourly rate £22.00 £17.30 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.17% -17.62% -13.40%
75th Percentile £23.75 £25.25 £27.00
90th Percentile £25.18 £33.75 £30.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.67 £23.75 £20.00
% change year-on-year -12.99% +18.75% +18.10%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 48,872 29,931 38,007
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.61% 91.58% 93.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,492 19,056 24,610
10th Percentile £328 £283 £298
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.02%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £727 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,302 1,437 2,371
10th Percentile £15.81 £13.75 £13.60
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £18.17
Median hourly rate £43.55 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +73.17% -38.57% -6.42%
75th Percentile £67.89 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.92 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £42.91
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.39% +7.28%

Desktop Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Desktop Support' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Desktop Support job vacancy trend in the UK

Desktop Support
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in the UK

Desktop Support
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Desktop Support over the 6 months to 24 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Desktop Support in the UK

Desktop Support
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in the UK

Desktop Support
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Desktop Support over the 6 months to 24 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Desktop Support in the UK

Desktop Support
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Desktop Support within the UK over the 6 months to 24 July 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -171 149 £213 +3.66% 16
UK excluding London -166 115 £210 +5.00% 12
London -84 55 £220 +1.73% 7
North of England -83 26 £233 +19.23% 5
South East -73 24 £180 -16.28% 4
South West -74 21 £210 -10.64%
Scotland -8 17 £213 +15.65% 2
North West -53 14 £235 +23.68% 3
Work from Home -49 13 £207 -17.40% 4
Midlands -58 13 £218 +27.19% 1
Yorkshire -45 12 £230 -2.13%
East of England -21 11 £173 -13.75%
West Midlands -67 7 £218 +27.94% 1
East Midlands -11 6 £225 +31.43%
Northern Ireland 0 3 £175 -15.66%
Wales -20 1 - -

Desktop Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 24 July 2026, Desktop Support contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Desktop Support in the job title.

1 123 (71.10%) Windows
2 72 (41.62%) Microsoft
3 69 (39.88%) Microsoft 365
4 67 (38.73%) Active Directory
5 53 (30.64%) Customer Service
6 41 (23.70%) Windows 10
7 38 (21.97%) Security Cleared
8 37 (21.39%) ITIL
9 35 (20.23%) SC Cleared
10 33 (19.08%) Problem-Solving
11 31 (17.92%) Microsoft Intune
12 28 (16.18%) Azure
13 27 (15.61%) SharePoint
14 25 (14.45%) Asset Management
15 24 (13.87%) VPN
16 23 (13.29%) ITSM
16 23 (13.29%) Service Management
17 22 (12.72%) Entra ID
17 22 (12.72%) Mac OS
18 19 (10.98%) SCCM
18 19 (10.98%) Service Delivery
18 19 (10.98%) ServiceNow
19 18 (10.40%) Degree
19 18 (10.40%) SLA
20 17 (9.83%) Migration
21 16 (9.25%) Apple
21 16 (9.25%) Apple iOS
22 14 (8.09%) Android
23 12 (6.94%) DHCP
23 12 (6.94%) Microsoft Exchange

Desktop Support Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 27 (15.61%) SharePoint
2 12 (6.94%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.58%) Confluence
Applications
1 9 (5.20%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.58%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (1.16%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 69 (39.88%) Microsoft 365
2 28 (16.18%) Azure
3 22 (12.72%) Entra ID
4 11 (6.36%) OneDrive
5 4 (2.31%) Google Ads
6 3 (1.73%) SaaS
6 3 (1.73%) Slack
7 2 (1.16%) Google Workspace
7 2 (1.16%) Microsoft Copilot
8 1 (0.58%) Google Drive
8 1 (0.58%) IaaS
8 1 (0.58%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 24 (13.87%) VPN
2 12 (6.94%) DHCP
3 11 (6.36%) DNS
4 10 (5.78%) TCP/IP
5 9 (5.20%) Wi-Fi
5 9 (5.20%) Wireless
6 7 (4.05%) LAN
7 3 (1.73%) Firewall
8 2 (1.16%) Remote Desktop
9 1 (0.58%) Cisco IOS
9 1 (0.58%) NAS
9 1 (0.58%) Skype
9 1 (0.58%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.58%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 6 (3.47%) JIRA
General
1 70 (40.46%) Social Skills
2 25 (14.45%) Finance
3 17 (9.83%) Organisational Skills
4 13 (7.51%) Banking
5 10 (5.78%) Investment Banking
6 9 (5.20%) Financial Institution
6 9 (5.20%) Spanish Language
7 8 (4.62%) Analytical Skills
7 8 (4.62%) Telecoms
8 5 (2.89%) Legal
9 4 (2.31%) Law
10 3 (1.73%) Public Sector
11 2 (1.16%) Local Government
11 2 (1.16%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.58%) Documentation Skills
12 1 (0.58%) Front Office
12 1 (0.58%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.58%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.31%) Software Packaging
2 1 (0.58%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 34 (19.65%) Onboarding
2 11 (6.36%) Driving Licence
3 10 (5.78%) Video Conferencing
4 9 (5.20%) Hedge funds
5 8 (4.62%) Smartphone
6 7 (4.05%) iPhone
6 7 (4.05%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.73%) Mobile App
8 2 (1.16%) Augmented Reality
8 2 (1.16%) BYOD
8 2 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
8 2 (1.16%) iPad
8 2 (1.16%) Virtual Reality
9 1 (0.58%) Analytical Mindset
9 1 (0.58%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 123 (71.10%) Windows
2 41 (23.70%) Windows 10
3 22 (12.72%) Mac OS
4 16 (9.25%) Apple iOS
5 14 (8.09%) Android
6 5 (2.89%) Windows 7
6 5 (2.89%) Windows Server
7 3 (1.73%) Windows XP
8 2 (1.16%) Linux
9 1 (0.58%) Mac OS X
9 1 (0.58%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (30.64%) Customer Service
2 37 (21.39%) ITIL
3 33 (19.08%) Problem-Solving
4 25 (14.45%) Asset Management
5 23 (13.29%) ITSM
5 23 (13.29%) Service Management
6 19 (10.98%) Service Delivery
7 17 (9.83%) Migration
8 10 (5.78%) Incident Management
9 9 (5.20%) Break/Fix
9 9 (5.20%) Inventory Management
9 9 (5.20%) Mobile Device Management
9 9 (5.20%) Root Cause Analysis
9 9 (5.20%) User Experience
10 8 (4.62%) Continuous Improvement
10 8 (4.62%) Logistics
11 6 (3.47%) Patch Management
11 6 (3.47%) Problem Management
12 5 (2.89%) Fault Management
12 5 (2.89%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 8 (4.62%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.58%) Bash
Qualifications
1 38 (21.97%) Security Cleared
2 35 (20.23%) SC Cleared
3 18 (10.40%) Degree
4 10 (5.78%) A+ Certification
5 4 (2.31%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 4 (2.31%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (1.73%) Microsoft Certified Professional
6 3 (1.73%) Network+ Certification
7 2 (1.16%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (1.16%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.16%) DV Cleared
7 2 (1.16%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (0.58%) CTC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (10.40%) SLA
System Software
1 67 (38.73%) Active Directory
2 9 (5.20%) Virtual Desktop
3 5 (2.89%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.73%) Firmware
5 2 (1.16%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.58%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.58%) zsh
Systems Management
1 31 (17.92%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (10.98%) SCCM
3 5 (2.89%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.58%) WSUS
Vendors
1 72 (41.62%) Microsoft
2 19 (10.98%) ServiceNow
3 16 (9.25%) Apple
4 9 (5.20%) HP
5 8 (4.62%) Citrix
6 7 (4.05%) McAfee
6 7 (4.05%) Starlink
7 5 (2.89%) Google
7 5 (2.89%) VMware
8 4 (2.31%) Dell
9 3 (1.73%) Bloomberg
9 3 (1.73%) Remedy
10 2 (1.16%) Adobe
10 2 (1.16%) Meraki
11 1 (0.58%) Cisco
11 1 (0.58%) MobileIron
11 1 (0.58%) Nexthink
11 1 (0.58%) Samsung
11 1 (0.58%) Synology
11 1 (0.58%) Ubiquiti